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White: Urijah Faber is in this Vitor Belfort zone right now

Following the fight, UFC president Dana White offered his opinion on the year that Faber is having, putting his name next to another resurgent veteran, Vitor Belfort, "Faber's in this Vitor zone right now. The older he gets, the better he gets. If you look at how good McDonald really is, and people were so excited for this fight, he literally shut Michael down the entire fight and finished him with a great performance."

When Faber was asked about how he viewed his fourth win of 2013, which earned him Submission of the Night, he replied, "It felt like a special performance, for sure. I've been having a lot of special performances."

Faber, the former WEC featherweight champion, has not lost a fight since he dropped a unanimous decision to interim UFC Bantamweight champion Renan Barao at UFC 149. Faber said he considers that July 2012 loss a turning point, "After the Barao fight I just went back to the fact that I love what I do and reminded myself of that."

Faber's win over McDonald and his other 2013 victories over Ivan Menjivar, Scott Jorgensen and Iuri Alcantara would seem to have him in line to face the winner of the UFC 169 title unification bout between bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Barao. White made no attempt to dispute that fact, "A couple years ago people were saying ‘oh, these guys are just looking for excuses to give Urijah Faber a title shot.' You can't deny it now. You can hate. You can dislike the guy. You can do whatever you want, but you can't deny him now. The kid looks better than ever."

There's no denying that Faber would love another shot at a UFC title, but if for some reason that isn't in the cards, he's not too worried, "I'm ready to take on whoever," said Faber.

After a few of the 5 losses he's had in the past 8 years, there were armchair experts - some on these very forums - calling for Urijah Faber to retire. As a big fan of his, it always infuriated me. But his work in the cage is showing how idiotic those comments were. What is he now, 19-0 in non title fights? That still leaves him at 11-6 in title fights, with 2 losses coming against guys many consider top 5 pound-for-pound (Aldo and Barao). Faber has now separated himself from everyone in the BW division NOT named Cruz or Barao and could probably still knock off some of the top FW fighters. And thanks to the addition of Coach Ludwig, he's still getting better at age 34!

"I'll throw you in that armbar with a quickness/ either you're with me, or bitch you're on the shit list" - Action Bronson

You can't argue if Faber wasn't a UFC poster child would he of got all the shots he's gotten. He's a great fighter, but so were others

Of course that's a factor. He's super marketable, so they make business decisions in favor of guys like him. But you can't ignore the fact that he absolutely destroys his opponents in non title fights, including top level guys like Michael McDonald. He's dominated 4 straight non title fights as the #3 guy in the division (#2 while Cruz was out) so there is little reason to deny him the next title shot now, "poster boy" or not.

"I'll throw you in that armbar with a quickness/ either you're with me, or bitch you're on the shit list" - Action Bronson

Thing is...before he lost to Mike Brown, he used to be the Jon Jones of the featherweight division. His spinning attacks and creative style made you look forward to seeing what he would pull off next. Then he got caught. And ever since then he's been a very good conventional fighter. Nothing special or exceptional, just functional and sometimes very safe. I think it's worse to have the spark of creativity and lose it due to a set back than to have never had it to begin with. I don't think he's going to start knocking guys out, you have to take certain risks to do that, and the moment he gets tagged he's gonna go to his wrestling and grind a decision if he can. Part of me can't really blame him....

"I don't call the fighting in my films 'violent', I call it 'action'. An action film borders between fantasy and reality. If I were to be completely realistic in my films, you would call me a violent, bloody man. I would simply destroy my opponent by tearing his guts out. I wouldn't do it so artistically." ~Bruce Lee

Thing is...before he lost to Mike Brown, he used to be the Jon Jones of the featherweight division. His spinning attacks and creative style made you look forward to seeing what he would pull off next. Then he got caught. And ever since then he's been a very good conventional fighter.

That is literally one of the most asinine statements I've read on here. Wow.

"I don't call the fighting in my films 'violent', I call it 'action'. An action film borders between fantasy and reality. If I were to be completely realistic in my films, you would call me a violent, bloody man. I would simply destroy my opponent by tearing his guts out. I wouldn't do it so artistically." ~Bruce Lee

Yes I did, and it was an impressive KO, but time will tell if he becomes that creative offisensive fighter pre-mike brown or remains a kick, knee, punch, shoot, grind fighter. Come on anybody can see the difference from his WEC days. don't get me wrong I'm glad he's nailing down the basics, but I'd like to see him go back to inovating new offense. I'd love to see him adopt spinning attacks again, especially elbows. I think spinning and switch kicks to the body and head would benefit him as he fakes take downs. I just know he's capable of much more than he shows.

"I don't call the fighting in my films 'violent', I call it 'action'. An action film borders between fantasy and reality. If I were to be completely realistic in my films, you would call me a violent, bloody man. I would simply destroy my opponent by tearing his guts out. I wouldn't do it so artistically." ~Bruce Lee

Yes I did, and it was an impressive KO, but time will tell if he becomes that creative offisensive fighter pre-mike brown or remains a kick, knee, punch, shoot, grind fighter. Come on anybody can see the difference from his WEC days. don't get me wrong I'm glad he's nailing down the basics, but I'd like to see him go back to inovating new offense. I'd love to see him adopt spinning attacks again, especially elbows. I think spinning and switch kicks to the body and head would benefit him as he fakes take downs. I just know he's capable of much more than he shows.

He won by submission - guillotine choke. You lie! You didn't watch that damn fight

"I'll throw you in that armbar with a quickness/ either you're with me, or bitch you're on the shit list" - Action Bronson